Saturday, 24 September 2011

Tinkling Ivories....Again????

A few weeks ago i had published quite a long narrative about my grandnephew, Tengku Ahmad Irfan, Malaysia's piano protege. The long winded narrative was written by my elder sister who is very close to Irfan since he was a baby but sad to say and upsetting to me and the other grandaunts of course, it had to be removed because of some technical glitches...no lah! Irfan don't like to see his baby pics in it ... uwaaaaaaaaaah!

And so this time around I will just put in a few pictures taken by another grandaunt (my younger sis) who is also very chummy and close to Irfan. The following pictures were taken after Irfan's perfomance in the 'Six Hands Together' concert where he performed with Bobby Chen and Foo Mei Yi. They performed with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) at the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS last 17 and 18 September 2011 - Malaysia's very own three top pianists join hands in a solo concerto, a double concerto and a very rare outing of a concerto Mozart originally wrote for a mother and her two daughters...

Irfan With Tok Su (my younger sis)

An inspiration to a young fan

With Bobby Chen and Foo Mei Yi - meeting and signing autographs with the fans

Irfan obliging a granduncle (my older brother) with his signature in the picture above

A family group photo after the performance

The Grandaunts and One Granduncle at an earlier concert this year 2011

Add in a few pictures when my niece (Irfan's mum) and family were in KB for a short visit earlier last month(a couple of days before Ramadhan) before they fly off to New York...

A memory with the family in KB

Lunch served at the family gathering (sempoi aje!)

A gift from my niece (Irfan's mum) to each of the grandaunts...sedap!!!

With young cousins in KB (From Left: Nafeela, Mukhriz and Irdina)

I had to add in here a bit of what my sister wrote about Irfan in the previous entry...Talking about piano lesson, Irfan was a fast learner and started to sit for the grading examinations which he passed with distinction and won recognition. One thing about Irfan, he is a good Teacher, whatever he learns he will impart to others. He likes to play the teacher. The grand aunts are the likely students. Irfan taught us mandarin ( he is good and learn the language to an advanced level) and piano ( not the instruments – we find piano is tough to play,- but the music notes) plus the composers life history. He reads and reads. He reads in mandarin and he reads books on musics. Looking at his book collections, you won’t believe that a small boy has gone through all of those books and remember the facts, all at his finger tips!As a person, well he is humble, after all the applause he got and the attention from the media, the travels to perform and going to master classes in Russia, Estonia, USA, Hong Kong we thought he would probably change. No he does not change. He is still the humble self as a child now as a young teen. What he has achieved did not go to his head at all. He is still a child who respects the elders (though he did mentioned that we are more than grand aunts to him, more like his grandmothers and best friends, because we talk and laugh and play monopoly with him and acted as his students, sometimes), and never behave condescendingly towards the ignorant especially in the world of music. He wants to share all his knowledge.

Once l told his father that, Irfan is just a normal child but he will immediate change into an adult when he starts to talk about music. He can debate with his father academically, and we are surprised how much he knows.

Irfan with his parents and Stevie Wonder after performing at 'Faces of Malaysia' event in Washington USA

I had met Irfan and his father in Hong Kong in October, and after his Thailand debut, I visited him back stage to renew our acquaintance and to congratulate him on his performance. Left to right: Buzz, pianist Irfan, his younger sister, and my friend Susan. Irfan’s very nice father took the picture. They live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I stumbled upon Buzz's blog (pic above) when i googled for info on Irfan's performance at Mahidol University, Bangkok late last year.

Our former PM Tun Dr Mahathir and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah even with their tight schedule managed to make time and fly to Bangkok to see Irfan performed at Mahidol Uni. They have been attending performances by Irfan since his first concert with MPO in 2009.

Another para of Tok Teh's take...

He has gone to Julliard Music Institute in New York to do double majors, in piano and composition. Julliard Institute needs to come up with a different schedule for him, because it was rare for a student to take a double major of sorts. He will attend his music lessons on Saturday at Julliard, and on the weekdays he will attend the professional children school. His classmates will be child actors, dancers, chefs, and other professionals, this school formulates syllabus for busy students who spends part of their time doing professional jobs and at the same time attending academic classes.

I have mementos from Irfan. I recorded his songs and compositions. I even have a sonata dedicated for me, The Tok Teh song, done in C Major (upbeat rythmn). I guessed to Irfan l am on the move person, that is why the song is done in C Major.

Irfan will be always be in our heart, because he is our first grand nephew who grew in front of our eyes, not because he has accomplished something big, even if he is a normal child with an average achievement he will still win our hearts, because he is a religious, humble, obedient, respectful, unselfish, generous little boy. He is born to please and make us happy with his laughter and jest. We love you, Irfan. May Allah take good care of you. May you achieve all the success in whatever you do.

Irfan has his last words to us when he came back to Kota Bharu last Ramadan. “Don’t worry, I won’t change abit, but l will only grow tall a few inches…”

No doubt we are already missing all of you (niece and her family) so far away from us....

This entry is posted to serve as a memorable note among my family about a little musical boy who has achieved so much in a short time and who has left us a few days ago for several years to pursue a greater dream ..... Insya Allah.

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